1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to biometrics identification, and in particular to a method for analyzing a palm print for the identification of an individual.
2. Background Information
Computer-aided recognition of individuals is becoming increasingly important in our information society. Biometrics is one of the most important and reliable methods in this field. The most widely used biometric feature is the fingerprint, whereas the most reliable feature is the iris. However, it is very difficult to extract small unique features (known as minutiae) from unclear fingerprints and iris scanners are very expensive. Other biometric features, such as the face and voice, are less accurate and they can be mimicked easily.
Palm print recognition for personal identification is becoming increasingly popular. Known methods include analyzing an image of a palm print to identify singular points, wrinkles, delta points and minutiae in the palm print. However, this requires a high-resolution image. Palmprint scanners that capture high-resolution images are costly and rely on high performance computers to fulfill the requirements of real-time identification.
One solution to the above problems seems to be the use of low-resolution images. In low-resolution palm print images, however, singular points and minutiae cannot be observed easily and only a small proportion of wrinkles are significantly clear. This makes it is questionable whether the use of such features from low resolutions provide sufficient distinctiveness to reliably identify individuals amongst a large population.